[MorbidToaster]

Considering he owns a Leben I'm pretty sure he's heard it...
 
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How many of theses components have you actually heard - I’m guessing  none ?
 
Sorry guys I just don’t believe that DACs improve significantly if at all.

 
 

 

[WarriorAnt]

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Mine was 664, also preordered.  As of right now FedEx shows it in transit.

I wonder if that number is an indication of how many have actually been pre ordered and sold.     664X $2000

 


 

 

[Currawong]

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Once you get something like the Liquid Fire / Leben and the LCD3, the quality of source will matter, big time.

How many of theses components have you actually heard - I’m guessing  none ?
 
Sorry guys I just don’t believe that DACs improve significantly if at all.

YMMV I reckon. Some combination of your listening level, the level of distortion in the DAC and the input impedance of the amp decides this in my experience. My main amp makes ALL DACs sound good, even my iPhone. Yet, weirdly, I felt something was wrong with my main rig some weeks ago listening with the 009s. Splitting off the USB power supply to my S/PDIF converter from my computer to a proper PSU fixed it. Instruments had seemed grating before that, but it was very subtle. I do have high expectations of my main rig though.
 
So I guess it depends very much on what people expect. If you expect angels kissing your ears when you get the LCD-3s and don't feel you're getting that, it is fun and expensive times figuring out why.

 

[googleli]

"On FedEx vehicle for delivery". Going to work soon and it may just be there when I arrive at office. Will try out at lunch time. The excitement!

 

[MorbidToaster]

I'm excited just to hear more impressions.
 
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"On FedEx vehicle for delivery". Going to work soon and it may just be there when I arrive at office. Will try out at lunch time. The excitement!

 
 

 

[dagothur]

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Lets see, in the course of just 3 weeks mwilson has heard and reported on the Red Wine Audio. Audeze Edition. The Liquid Fire, 2 Lebens of the same model, and the Resolution Cantata, while at the same time having the W4S DAC-2 and the WA22.  
 
 
 

 


 

I believe it was directed at googlei, not mwilson.
 

 

[MorbidToaster]

Regardless...googleli owns a Leben. The comment is null and void already. Lol
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I believe it was directed at googlei, not mwilson.
 

 
 

 

[googleli]

I have had quite a bit of audition on DACs as I myself was a skeptic. I didn't just fort out US$16K+ on the Esoteric K01 because it was the latest and greatest of Esoteric. Before that and the D07,I was just driving the Leben and LCD2 with the Hifiman 801 line out and was happy with it.  I have extensively compared with my ears brands such as DAC Magic, Benchmark, Grace, Lavry, Musicland, Burson, CLAS, HPP1, And the higher end ones like Chord, Linn, Playback Design, EMMLabs, Esoteric, Weiss and Antelope. I actually brought my Leben and LCD2 with me for the various auditions. It is true that not every DAC or player in the latter category beats the ones in the first category, but towards the top models of the latter category the difference became more clear and significant, to a point that listening to the LCD2 through the Hifiman was no longer acceptable.

 

[purrin]

 
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Regardless...googleli owns a Leben. The comment is null and void already. Lol

 
Haha!
 
 

 

[purrin]

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I wonder if that number is an indication of how many have actually been pre ordered and sold.     664X $2000

I think they started at 625. 

 

 

[googleli]

Mine is 618.

 

[baka1969]

In an ideal system, the headphone is only as good as the source.Often than not, the bottle neck of the headphone system is not the headphone. If I'm bundling a high end headphone system, I'll spend 50% on source, 30% on amp, and 20% on the headphone (I'm only talking about headphone system, speaker system is different).

Without using percentages I think an overall balanced approach is what I believe gives the best results. I wouldn't pair a $2000 DAC with a $100 amp as a general rule of thumb. For example, a high quality $1500 DAC with a well matched $1500 amp and a synergistic $1500 headphone that all work together seems to be a great way to put together a system. that's my view.

 

[mwilson]

My order # was 623 for whatever it's worth
 
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I think they started at 625. 

 

 
 

 

[purrin]

 
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Mine is 618.

They started @ 618.
 

 

[drez]

googleli is right - as painfully expensive as some of the top DAC's are, they do have better performance than midrange DAC's.  I tried a system with a K-01, and even the single - ended output destroyed my AudioGD unit.  Given this I don't think it's worth my while buying LCD-3 until I build B22 and get a better DAC.